The Organic Action

The Border Theatre is excited to host The Organic Action, the first in a series of workshops led by award-winning guest director Raúl Valles. The workshop is aimed at experienced actors who wish to explore action as the fundamental tool for creating a performance.

It attempts to form a consciousness that allows participants to perceive theater as the art of the actor’s body in action, in a state of representation, discovered from the personal depths of each actor and put to the service of a scene. It attempts to show the actor and his body as the only indispensible element for performance and for establishing a profound contact between the performer and his truth, and the audience and their experiences. It is through action that a performance acquires a structure, a flow, a rhythm and a tone all of which are indispensible elements of stage work.

This 5-day workshop will be held June 6th – 10th, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM at Glasbox, 1500 Texas, Ave (entry is on Langtry St.). The cost to attend is $40.

For more information please email mtorres@bordertheatre.org or call 915-412-5283.

Topics

What is action?

What is organic action?

The three moments of the organic action

Where does organic action originate?

Creation of an organic action

About Raúl Valles

Raúl Valles is a director, playwright, theatrical researcher, and founding member of the former Teatro Necrotono group. His most recent shows include La Herencia de Edipo (The Inheritance of Oedipus), Madre Medea, Lemnos, Improv’, Bemorí and Santuario (Sanctuary).

La Herencia de Edipo participated in several national and international festivals throughout Mexico, including Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Durango. Valles won the Best Director award at the 2006 Chihuahua State Theatre Showcase and the play received the Official Selection of Mexico award by the UNESCO International Theater Institute.
That same year, La Herencia de Edipo performed at the 9th International Theatre Festival in Tehran, Iran, winning the award for Best International Play. A year later, Valles was invited back to Tehran to direct Lemnos, a collaboration between Mexican and Iranian playwrights and actors. The play was presented at the 2008 Fadjr International Theater Festival.

While in Tehran, Valles conducted the workshop The Speaking Body and taught the course The Theatrical Action and its Origin at the University of Tehran and the Center for Acting Studies.

Valles has twice been awarded the David Alfaro Siqueiros scholarship by the state of Chihuahua as well as the PACMYC award. The latter, for his research into the rites, myths, dances and chants of the Rarámuri people that led to the creation of Bemorí.

In 2010, he developed Santuario, a show based on sacred texts, for the 6th Chihuahua International Festival.

Valles has taught numerous workshops and short courses at the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua and his published books include: Hombres cosa hombres miedo, a collection of 5 plays; Un estudio sobre el actor, a book of essays co-authored with Inet Simental; and his upcoming book, Rumbo a vacío, a collection of plays and part of the Official Selection of the 9th National Gathering of Young Playwrights, which will take place in July of this year in Querétaro.

His articles and essays have been published in the journals Solar, Síntesis, in the Anuario de teatro 2007, and in Paso de Gato and Proceso.

The Border Theatre is a performance ensemble located in El Paso, TX that is dedicated to creating and developing original, cutting-edge works that explore the human experience through the artistry of theatre.